High School Magic and a Pam Grier Double Feature this Weekend at the Cinema

First, at 10 a.m., a rare screening of a Memphis classic at Malco Studio on the Square. When What I Love About Concrete won the 2013 Best Hometowner Feature at Indie Memphis, it had been in production for several years. Filmmakers Brett Hannover, Alanna Stewart, and Katherine Dohan began the project while they were still in high school at White Station. As I said in my Indie Memphis' Greatest Hits article about the film, everyone thinks they should make a movie about the high school experience, but these folks actually did it, and their movie is much cooler than yours would have been. Somewhere between Sixteen Candles and A Wrinkle In Time, What I Love About Concrete is a must-see. And if you, or someone you know, is in grades 7-12, you can see it for free, and have a pizza lunch with the filmmakers, courtesy of the Indie Memphis young filmmakers program! Click here to sign up.

Then at sunset, the Time Warp Drive-In kicks off its sixth season with a tribute to actress Pam Grier. Quick, what's the best Quentin Tarantino movie? Time's up! It's Jackie Brown, the Elmore Leonard adaptation QT wrote for Grier in the mid-90s. And there's no better place to see it than the Malco Summer Drive-In.

Then, Grier's breakthrough performance, the 1973 blackspoitation flick Coffy, in which she is an incredible bad ass.